11. Eye for an Eye

The rotten orb hung in the air, eyeball stalks waving like seaweed. Its central eye, an off-milk lens the size of Caela’s head, rolled in its socket to stare down at them. The monster turned on its axis like a terrible planet, its hungry maw yawning wide. An unearthly rending sound poured from between its broken-glass teeth, scouring the eardrums of the onlookers.

Rose tackled Zora, pressing her to the ground just as the abominable creature lunged at them. Its jaws slammed together like mausoleum doors, easily crunching through the corner of a stone worktop.

“Freija!” he cried, tumbling to his feet and tossing the waifish medusa onto his shoulder.

An unbearable instant passed before an electric-blue mouse scurried out from under the animated husk, scrabbling over the glass-strewn floor. A bouquet of eye-stalks swivelled like dead sunflowers, tracking the little rodent. A flash blasted from one, then another, then another still, zapping at the ground with bolts of red, yellow and purple.

Just like the eyes, Caela realised, matching each bolt’s colour to the iris from which it had emanated.

Mouse-Freija scurried, dodging the first two blasts as they kicked up clouds of debris in her wake. The third, however, found its mark. The tiny mouse’s squeak echoed into a woman’s cry as Freija tumbled out of her transformation, doubled over in pain as she spun to face her attacker.

At first, Caela couldn’t see a wound. Then a dark red blotch swam up from under Freija’s tanned skin, a painful island of internal bleeding. Freija and Rose stumbled back, caught between rot and flame, before rescue reared its helmeted head from within the smoke.

“Get behind me!” bellowed Valerios, hefting a double-bladed axe. “The door beyond the flames is open. I will cover your retreat!”

They ducked under his arms, Rose still cradling Zora, and into the dormitory, leaving Valerios to stand firm as the horned horror drifted menacingly towards him. Despite its vast, bloated shape, it began to squeeze its way through the doorway, distorting like a bubble of pus.

As it popped free with a vile squelch, the damaged doorframe collapsed in on itself. Boards and rough stone rained down on the uncaring creature, blocking out the flashing lights of the laboratory. All was lit by the infernal glow of the flames.

Lux raced forward to Valerios’ side, the honey glow of Candlelight coating the sword he held in a two-handed death grip. Valerios cast a glance down at him.

“Your sword is for saving people, boy? Time to use it!”

They charged side by side towards the looming monster, underneath a hail of shots from the arrayed eye-stalks. Their blades chopped at the soft, putrid flesh, meeting sticky resistance, like cutting through dough. The monstrosity screeched, its flesh bubbling at the touch of Candlelight. Just as Valerios landed a heavy blow, the creature whirled, tugging the axe from his grasp.

“Stupid.” The voice came from somewhere behind Caela. A ghostly visage swam out of the smoke, resolving into Hellebore’s porcelain mask. The thief stumbled past, black cloak now trimmed in glowing embers.

“They’re not getting through that skin. Need to hit the weak points.”

Ahead, Valerios unspooled his chain-blade and whirled it above his head, only for it to be snagged by the tentacle-grip of an eye-stalk. He tugged at the chain, momentarily off-balance. The moment was all it took for a flash of green lightning to strike the paladin, making his muscles spasm wildly. He toppled stiffly, roaring in agony.

Hellebore made a noise of frustration. They looked at Caela, then back at the felled Valerios, whom Lux was trying to drag out of harm's way.

“You owe me for this one,” they rasped.

They broke into a run as the eye monster loomed over the two men for the coup de grace. Hellebore hopped onto Valerios’ back as if he were no more than a convenient foothold, whipping out a needle-like rapier. They tensed like a sprinter, then leapt right onto the creature’s face.

Finding a grip on a swaying horn, they braced themselves and slashed at the giant eye. The beast roared, slavering mouth champing at Hellebore’s flailing legs.

Lux began to heave Valerios away, and Caela rushed to help. She managed to lever up one huge shoulder, and Lux braced himself underneath like a pallbearer. His expression was frozen in panic.

“We’ll get you out of here, Mr Valerios, I swear-”

There was a screech, and a dark shape flew past. Hellebore, finally shaken loose, had been tossed towards the far door. They bowled over the catatonic Johannes, whom Freija was vainly trying to revive. Herbs and bottles spilled from her bag to scatter on the floor, useless.

At the door, Rose was whispering urgently to the medusa clutched in his arms.

“Zora, you’re the last person who deserves to hear this, but I need your help.”

He bit off the admission as if it physically pained him. “Someone needs to slow down that thing, and I can’t do it.”

Each snake of her hair shook in frantic denial. “I can’t, either,” she whimpered. “It has my eyes.”

Rose pressed his forehead to hers, their panicked breath mingling.

“I know,” he insisted, “and you have one of its eyes. God knows what it does, but if it’s anything like the rest of those eyeballs, it’ll do some damage.”

They were fighting for each grain of sand in the hourglass. Lux heaved on Valerios’ paralysed body with every ounce of his strength, while Caela drew, aimed, shot, and drew again. Arrow after arrow was flung into the gelatinous eyeball of the advancing orb.

Unperturbed, it returned fire. She danced away, weaving through a rainbow barrage of eye beams.

I just have to keep its attention for a few more seconds, she thought. They’re almost out. Just a few feet more…

Zap. Caela felt the smallest spasm in her foot, which suddenly felt heavy. When she stepped back, it was with the grinding noise of stone on stone.

Oh no.

She turned, dragging the leg which had stopped responding to her commands. Her skin prickled hot, then cold, then numb. She only dared glance down for a second to see the advancing spread of grey stone, creeping its way up her leg.

Lux turned to her, his expression aghast. He dropped Valerios, already reaching out for her, but she shook her head. One weakening hand warned him back.

“No, Lux!” she cried. “Keep going! Save Mr Valerios!”

Lux looked wildly from one immobilised figure to the other, blue eyes wide with fear. Caela was reminded of when they had first met. He’d looked like a confused boy then, too.

“She’s turning to stone,” Rose said, horrified. He turned back to Zora. “What can we do?”

Her bony shoulders hunched in on themselves. “Nothing now,” she croaked, “but there are ways. Spells that can remove such a curse.”

Rose raised his voice.

“You hear that, Lux?” he yelled, false bravado cracking like the room’s failing supports. “We can fix her. Right after we get out of here. We can get those boffins at the Mages’ Guild, come back, and fix her.”

Lux locked eyes with his mentor, then gazed back at Caela. The rest of her body was numb, her neck now barely mobile. She forced a teary smile at him.

“Go.”

The word was etched in stone as the last remnants of her body were turned grey. Lux tore his eyes away and strained against Valerios, dragging him towards the door. Rose lowered Zora to the floor, holding her upright as she swayed like a leaf.

“Zora. It already got two of my friends. Please. Just a little more time, or they are going to die.”

“I- I can’t see it. I’ll miss.”

“I’ll be your eyes.” He pressed his ear to hers, guiding her head with his. He tracked the abominable creature’s advance for as long as he could bear, then yelled. “Now!”

Zora opened her eye. A bolt of crimson screamed across the room. It flashed through the orb’s doughy flesh, carving a tunnel straight through the putrid mass. The monster screeched again, spiralling like a downed bird.

“Got it!” Rose cried, as Lux reached the doorway with his precious burden. “We took it down. Now all we need to do is come back later for-”

The monster was frenzied in its death spiral. It gnashed its gigantic jaws, beams firing wildly around the blazing room. Wooden buttresses, already flame-weakened, smashed to pieces, the ceiling threatening to collapse altogether.

As they raced into the narrow tunnel, supports creaking and rubble plummeting down around them, Lux looked back.

Just in time to see the creature make its final, furious lunge. The statue that had once been Caela - unable to move, unable to escape - vanished into the void that was its maw as the jagged fangs clamped shut.

In flame and shards of broken stone, the burning workshop collapsed in on itself, burying the dying abomination and the fragments of Caela along with it.

Lux screamed. 

12. While You Were Gone >>